THE Edinburgh Fringe is celebrating an upturn in ticket sales as the annual cultural event draws to a close today – with reports of an upturn in ticket sales since the London Olympics ended two weeks ago.
Official across-the-board Fringe figures will not be released until this afternoon, but figures for the revamped Assembly Rooms released yesterday show that sales increased by 20% in the week after the Olympics ended, rising from 25,246 to 30,730 to the week ending August 18. Estimated sales for the fourth week are only slightly down on that figure, at 29,980.
"Sales have reached their expected targets with just under 100,000 of the 151,000 available tickets being issued, equating to a 66% capacity across the board," an Assembly Rooms spokesman said.
At The Stand, ticket sales for the first week were down 20% but then rallied, leaving the venue 7% down on 2011. That, however, was a record year.
"I know people who were sitting in discovering an interest in canoeing or volleyball that they'd never had before so it could have been the Olympics," said Stand director Tommy Sheppard. "But I've also heard a theory that because of the bad weather, more local people than ever before booked a [foreign[ holiday during the school holidays."
It was a similar picture at the Gilded Balloon. "Despite the potential problems with the Olympic overlap, our sales are on track with 2011, with only a 1% drop," said a spokesman. "Although some days felt quieter than in previous years, we have, in fact, sold more than 130,000 tickets for our 112 shows, which is an increase of around 8000 tickets from 2011."
Smaller outfits such as the Space group, which operates several venues in the Old Town and concentrates mostly on theatre productions, also reported a post-Olympics upturn, with a number of shows selling out the weekend after the Games finished. Meanwhile, the bar operated by the venue at Surgeons' Hall took 70% of its entire 2009 income in just six hours on August 18.
Figures released by the Pleasance theatre show better-than-usual ticket sales for the Fringe's final weeks but again mask a slight year-on-year fall, suggesting the post-Olympics bounce is a corrective for below-average sales at the start of the Fringe rather than an added bonus.
"Figures have been rising and we are delighted that this week is better than this time last year," said Anthony Alderson, the artistic director. "Saturday August 18 was a record night for us. Overall, we are only 1.5% behind last year."
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